African black soap, or simply black soap (also known by various local names such as ọṣ''e dúdú'', ''sabulun salo'', and ''ncha nkota''), is a kind of

soap Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...

originating in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, invented by the Yoruba people. It is made from the ash of locally harvested African plants and dried peels, which gives the soap its characteristic dark colour as well as oils derived from plant sources. Black soap has become a popular

toiletry Personal care products are consumer products which are applied on various external parts of the body such as Human skin, skin, hair, Nail (anatomy), nails, lips, external genital and anal areas, as well as Human tooth, teeth and mucous membrane of ...

product in North America. In Nigeria, black soap is often made by women using traditional recipes and is often exported through fair trade groups. Black soap has been found to have some antimicrobial properties against skin microbiota such as ''

Staphylococcus aureus ''Staphylococcus aureus'' is a Gram-positive spherically shaped bacterium, a member of the Bacillota, and is a usual member of the microbiota of the body, frequently found in the upper respiratory tract and on the skin. It is often posi ...

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...

''and''

Candida albicans ''Candida albicans'' is an opportunistic pathogenic yeast that is a common member of the human gut flora. It can also survive outside the human body. It is detected in the gastrointestinal tract and mouth in 40–60% of healthy adults. It is usu ...

.''

History

The earliest origins of African black soap are traced to the Yoruba People of Nigeria. It is intertwined today with the cultural practices and natural resources of various West African ethnic groups. For instance, while some communities use

shea butter Shea butter ( , , or ; ) is a fat (triglyceride; mainly oleic acid and stearic acid) extracted from the nut of the African shea tree ('' Vitellaria paradoxa''). It is ivory in color when raw and commonly dyed yellow with borututu root or ...

, others incorporate

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...

into their soap-making processes. However, the use of

in African black soap production dates back to the 14th century. Despite the name, African black soaps are rarely black with some of the highest-quality ones ranging from beige to dark brown. The earliest detailed account of African black soap appears in

Awnsham Churchill Awnsham Churchill (1658–1728), of the Black Swan, Paternoster Row, London and Henbury, Dorset, was an English bookseller and radical Whigs (British political party), Whig politician who sat in the English House of Commons, English and British H ...

's "A Collection of Voyages and Travels...," where it is noted that in the

Senegambia region The Senegambia (other names: Senegambia region or Senegambian zone,Barry, Boubacar, ''Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade'', (Editors: David Anderson, Carolyn Brown; trans. Ayi Kwei Armah; contributors: David Anderson, American Council of Le ...

the Portuguese valued the soap, likely for its effectiveness. However, they refrained from introducing the soap to Portugal to avoid disrupting their local soap-making industry. Additionally, Dutch merchant and diplomat

David van Nyendael David van Nyendael, also van Nijendael (1667 – 20 October 1702), was a Dutch merchant and diplomat in the service of the Dutch West India Company, and stationed at the Dutch Gold Coast. Biography David van Nyendael was born in Golkonda, I ...

provided accounts of soap-making on the Gold Coast (modern-day

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

), where locals used palm oil, banana leaves, and wood ash. Nyendael noted that the soap-making techniques in the Gold Coast were very similar and differed little from the soap-making of the people of

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

in Nigeria, which according to James Welsh (an English explorer) had a fragrance of violet. Oral history in Ghana points out that they were taught this soap making by the Yoruba people. Today the soap is called Alata Semina in Ghana, which refers to Pepper Sellers soap, due to the peppers the Yoruba traders who taught them sold.

Production and brand varieties

Plant matter, such as plantain skins,

palm tree The Arecaceae () is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially c ...

leaves, cocoa pods and

shea tree ''Vitellaria paradoxa'' (formerly ''Butyrospermum parkii''), commonly known as shea tree, shi tree (, also ), or vitellaria, is a tree of the family Sapotaceae. It is the only species in the genus ''Vitellaria'',ash (which supplies the

alkali In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The a ...

required to convert or saponify the oils and fats). Next, water and various oils and fats, such as

coconut oil Coconut oil (or coconut fat) is an edible oil derived from the kernels, meat, and milk of the coconut palm fruit. Coconut oil is a white solid fat below around , and a clear thin liquid oil at higher temperatures. Unrefined varieties have a disti ...

, and

, are added to the ash. The mixture is cooked and hand-stirred for at least 24 hours. After the soap solidifies, it is scooped out and set out to cure. A type of black soap known as ''ose-dudu'' originated with the

Yoruba people The Yoruba people ( ; , , ) are a West African ethnic group who inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, which are collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 50 million people in Africa, are over a million outsid ...

. A combination of ''ose-dudu'' with leaves of the tropical

camwood ''Baphia nitida'', also known as camwood, barwood, and African sandalwood (although not a true sandalwood), is a shrubby, leguminous, hard-wooded tree from central west Africa. It is a small understorey, evergreen tree, often planted in villag ...

tree (''Pterocarpus osun'') produces a popular kind of soap with exfoliating properties called ''Dudu-Osun''. Other traditional Nigerian names for black soap include ''sabulun salo'' and ''ncha nkota.''

References

Soaps Acne treatments {{product-stub

History

Production and brand varieties

See also

References